Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I get so excited when ingredients become available locally. In the past, I've gone on about cornmeal from Three Sisters, mustard from Mustard Girl, balsamic from Herbally Yours. As more and more staples surface at our farmers' markets and shops, my demos and home cooking becomes less about local in principle and more about practice. Take the following Baba Ghanoush recipe. Yes, lemons and olives will never grow in the Midwest and I'll never excise them from diet entirely, but with the appearance of East Winds Nut Butters at Green Grocer and its production of Tahini, I can now make the dish, a favorite in our house, with a majority of local ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 450º F. Prick the eggplant all over and roast in an ungreased baking pan for 25 minutes or until it is tender and collapsed. Let it cool. Cut it open and scoop out all of the flesh and seeds and dump it into a food processor. Add the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, paprika, kosher salt and parsley and puree until smooth. Serve with pita chips.

Kids Cooking TipsKids can prick the eggplant, scoop out the flesh and seeds, measure the ingredients and pulse the food processor